Linking Insomnia and Suicide Ideation: The Role of Socio-Cognitive Mechanisms in Suicide Risk

Despite what is known about predictors of suicide risk and consequences of insomnia, research has yet to delineate mechanisms that may explain the known relationship between insomnia symptoms and suicide risk. There is some disagreement in the literature regarding whether this relationship could be primarily explained by recent depressive symptoms, or whether there may be other explanatory factors related to sleep deficits. The present study addressed this contention in the literature by examining 1) whether socio-cognitive variables (e.g. fatigue, appraised social problem-solving ability, and hopelessness) explained this insomnia-ideation relationship, and 2) whether these variables contributed some explanatory variance in suicide ideation above and beyond that explained by depressive symptoms. Approximately 483 female participants completed an online study survey. Cross-sectional path analyses were conducted in order to examine the initial hypothesized path, as well as whether the path persisted when depression was integrated in the model. Results suggest that the hypothesized socio-cognitive factors related to sleep deficits partially mediate the established insomnia-suicide ideation relationship. And, further, that the socio-cognitive pathway from sleep loss to suicide ideation persists even when accounting for recent depressive symptoms, such that both pathways separately explain some degree of this relationship. These findings have meaningful implications for understanding mechanisms by which insomnia symptoms may confer heightened risk for considering suicide